IN BRIEF: GAPSA calls for more student input

One of the resolutions voiced graduate student concern over impending projects that GAPSA members felt had not been properly thought out. This resolution, which passed unanimously, targeted such University proposals as the diversification of Locust Walk, the building of a new campus center and its effect on Houston Hall, and the demolition of Smith Hall. In the resolution, GAPSA calls upon "the deans of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Fine Arts to immediately involve students and faculty in discussion of relocation, to the satisfaction of faculty and student government groups within those schools." A separate resolution urged the administration "not to demolish Smith Hall and to reevaluate its insistence on this site as the location of a new research facility." This resolution, which also passed unanimously, takes under consideration the University's need to build additional science facilities but does not recognize its need to replace an historical landmark in the process. "Smith Hall is the sole remaining example of the University's 19th Century Laboratory buildings and as such its historical relevance is equal to that of the Furness Library or Logan Hall," the resolution states. In addition, GAPSA unanimously passed a Graduate Student Associations Council resolution which "supports the work of the Asian-American Student Alliance, students in the Oriental Studies Department, and other campus groups to change the name of the Oriental Studies Department [to a] name which does not offend or trivialize." The meeting ended with a discussion of safety and security issues. -- Ed Miller